Calkins: BYU players aren't kids...but they have lots of them

San Diego State's opponent in the Poinsettia Bowl has about 30 married players

Senior year. Mid-November conference game. BYU tight end Andrew George catches a touchdown pass in a five-point win over New Mexico.

Best day of his life. Easily. His son, after all, was born a few hours prior.

This was in 2009, when George found out that his wife’s water had broken during the team’s flight to Albuquerque. No biggie. He just hopped on a plane back to Utah after landing, caught the birth of his boy, Jack, and then jetted back to New Mexico for some mid-game heroics.

“Pretty wild day,” said George, now a graduate assistant with the Cougars, “but a pretty awesome day, too.”

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to BYU. Welcome to a football program that’s one gargantuan happy family.

The school’s sports information department estimates that 30 players on the team are married, and many of them have children. Gotta think they were pumped about the invite to Thursday’s Poinsettia Bowl. For the kids, this meant Sea World
and
the Zoo.

There is only one football program in the country with a wives club, and that program is BYU. And when San Diego State (9-3) meets the Cougars on Thursday, it will have to deal with dozens of spouses screaming in unison.

BYU senior Braden Hansen still remembers being recruited by the school six years ago, and it was hardly the seductive trip you sometimes hear about at other universities. Yes, he was surrounded by women – but they all had rings on their fingers.

“It was kind of weird. Coming out of high school, marriage was not on my mind, and to see all these guys who were not only married but had kids?” said Hansen, who is now married with a kid. “I don’t even know how to explain it.”

Some people think that because of the two-year Mormon missions most players take, the Cougars (7-5) come into each season with a major advantage. They are older. They may be bigger. And they are unquestionably more mature.

But besides the fact that they spend 24 months away from football – often times in third-world countries where simply
maintaining
your physique is a challenge – they come back carrying a lot more weight than helmets and pads.

Being a husband is demanding enough. And being a parent is its own full-time job. But to be both while balancing a full slate of classes with the demands of college football? You don’t need the Book of Mormon to see that these Mormons are booked.

Sometimes, defensive lineman Ian Dulan is dragging at practice because his 2-year-old, Jensen, spent the night kicking him in his sleep. Sometimes, when fellow D-lineman Eathyn Manumaleuna has a team meeting to attend to, and his exhausted wife asks “can’t they just fill you in later?” he has to explain how that’s not such a viable option. And sometimes, players have to miss workouts altogether because the demands of parenthood simply outweigh those of the pigskin.